(Image of a previous panel from our friends at The Double Negative. That’s me with the green hat. #famous)

This is basically just a follow up with my views from my contribution on the Threshold Festival’s Industry Panel last Sunday (12.02.12) where I joined Rich Pontefrat (Another Media/Calm), Philip Hayes (The Picket), Gemma Smith (Snub Fest) and Mo Maghazachi (Aurora Media) to talk about venue closures and surrounding issues. There is a lot of focus on the negatives of the local music scene’s state at the moment and understandably. But we need to look at the bigger picture, past scenes and natural inevitabilities…

I think that this is a great time for this city. Opportunity wise at least. Ofcourse, it’s a shame how it’s come about and my thoughts go out to those who it has effected for the worse but I think now the current scene will grow in to itself. What we are experiencing with venues is natural selective survival. This is a more positive notion that has been thrown around a lot lately but it does seem like the quantity downsizing of local venues has been a natural adaptive evolution that has provided us with a scene that is more compact and sustainably effective. Plus it has given locals on the scene the incentive to take our old things one step further, expand or be innovative.

For expample, Lazy Genius who put on the incredible, local band friendly Monday nights at Mojo is now in the process of a large expansion at Bumper which will introduce more non musos to the scene. This would never have happened without Mojo’s decision to stop live music. Once you chat around you find the current cimate has led to a lot of stories like this and when you hear these things it’s hard not to believe the forecoming year will either be host to a new stronger scene or atleast set the foundations for one the year after. I think it has been an economical kick up our backsides that has made us realise that we got a bit lazy. The worst is over. Now’s the time to innovate. 

Words: Joe ManGone

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